Those who spend time poring over documents related to the wind farm proposal are walking around with glassy eyes these days. On their reading table are the 36-page decision by state Secretary of Environmental Affairs Ellen Roy Herzfelder that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement "adequately and properly complies" with state law; the 32-page comment letter from the Cape Cod Commission that says, in effect, "No, it doesn't," and calls for a Supplemental DEIS; and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound's five-volume assault on the validity of the proposal and the DEIS (the Army Corps' DEIS itself is only four volumes!).

Although Herzfelder found that "the project may advance to the stage of a Final EIR," other remarks of hers indicate that document may be a ways off. She writes that "it appears the footprint of the array (of turbines) may be considerably larger than necessary," and calls for evaluation of such an alternative. Specifically, "the analysis should include a project with a significantly reduced facility and/or a phased-in approach to installation." The latter is the route taken by a similar approach taken at the Arklow offshore site in Ireland, where seven out of a permitted 200 turbines have been constructed and are operating.

Other information that will be necessary, according to Herzfelder, concerns "the financial and/or technical ability of the person proposing the project to build and maintain the project properly." Could that open the door to revealing the investors behind Cape Wind?

Herzfelder states that the Final EIR "should include at least one year of additional radar data" on bird migration during the spring and fall seasons. In a press statement, Cape Wind President Jim Gordon hailed Herzfelder's decision as "an important milestone that brings the benefits of lower energy costs, better health and greater energy independence one step closer to the people of Massachusetts. We recognize that Secretary Herzfelder has requested additional information about Cape Wind and we look forward to working with state and federal agencies in the months to come as we complete the Final Environmental Impact report."

Panel to pursue Shelf interest

A forum on the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies report, "Toward an Ocean Vision for the Nantucket Shelf Region," will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Barnstable Senior Center on Route 28 in Hyannis.

The free event includes a panel discussion featuring state Rep. Demetrius Atsalis; Peter Borrelli, the center's executive director; Jo Ann Muramoto, senior scientists at Horsley Whitten Group and former conservation administrator for Falmouth; state Sen. Rob O'Leary; and Greg Watson, vice president of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

The panel will be moderated by former Cape Cod Commission executive director Armando Carbonell, now a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.